Sports

KLEM Local Schedule (week of February 23)

MONDAY RESULTS - February 23

(high school basketball)

LE MARS -- The number-six rated Le Mars Bulldogs scored the first 12 points of the game and had little trouble in dismissing Storm Lake from the tournament trail, winning their 3A District opener 69-31 Monday night at the Bulldogs new gym. Le Mars led 28-4 by the end of the first quarter and 48-12 by halftime. Reserves played much of the second half for the Bulldogs. Tyler Borchers had 18 points and ten rebounds for Le Mars by halftime and played about a minute and a-half into the second half before calling it a night. Borchers didn't add to his halftime totals. Trent Hilbrands had ten points and Tyler Paulson and Pete Meis eight each for the Dogs. Sophomore Parker Lange led the Tornadoes with 15. Le Mars, now 18-and-4 for the season, plays Sergeant Bluff-Luton Thursday night in the District finals at Sioux City North in a 7 o'clock tip-off. S-B-L edged Bishop Heelan 50-48 at the Bulldogs gym in the opening game Monday night as Jacob Schultz dropped in 15 points for the Warriors. Sergeant Bluff-Luton, which improved to 12-and-10 with Monday's win, upset Le Mars 67-62 in December to hand the Bulldogs one of their four losses.

(high school basketball)

LAWTON -- After going scoreless in the third quarter, Woodbury Central erupted for 32 points in the final eight minutes and finished the game on a 26-8 run to erase a 14-point deficit to stun number-nine Gehlen Catholic 55-51 in the 1A boys District Tournament semifinals Tuesday night in Lawton. The Wildcats scored the final nine points of the game, all from the free throw line. Keaton Fish hit all three foul shot attempts after being fouled on a three-point attempt with 17 seconds to play to narrow a 51-46 Gehlen lead to two. Drew Widman's two free throws with 14 seconds left tied the game at 51-all before Clay Baldwin's two free throws with 4.4 seconds to play gave the Cats their first lead since the opening 30 seconds of the game. The Jays, who's turnover total exceeded twenty for the night, threw the in-bounds pass off the sidelines, allowing Fish to hit two more free throws with 3.2 seconds to play to complete an incredible comeback to end Gehlen's season at 20-and-3. Drew Widman led a balanced scoring attack for Woodbury Central with 18 points, 11 of which came in the final quarter. Keaton Fish had 12, Clay Baldwin 11 and Jameson Mandl 10. Jarod Steffes had 15 points for the Jays and Ryan Stoll added 10 before fouling out with 17 seconds to play. Gehlen's leading scorer, Alex Kellen, was checked to just eight points and none in the fourth quarter. Woodbury Central advances to Thursday District title game with a 10-and-13 record. Nine Gehlen seniors wrapped up their careers Tuesday night.

Lawton-Bronson continued the upset theme in Lawton Tuesday night by holding off the number-two seed in District 16, Remsen St. Mary's, 49-46 to move into the Thursday night championship game at the Sioux City West gym. Brett Prenger connected on his only three-pointer of the night with 4:31 to play in the game to erase a 38-37 St. Mary's lead and the Eagles never trailed again. Prenger dropped in a pair of free throws with 18.8 seconds to play to give Lawton-Bronson a three-point lead and then turned to their defense to hold the Hawks scoreless to the finish. Prenger also had a hand in checking the Hawks' leading scorer, Jacob Wesselmann, to two points on a pair of fourth quarter free throws. Lawton-Bronson improves to 13-and-10 for the season while Remsen St. Mary's closes out a 15-and-8 campaign. Keeston Hanks led the Lawton-Bronson scoring with 12 points with Nathan Kneifl chipping in with 10. Brett Prenger and Cody Ricke had 9 each. Colin Schroeder had 17 for St. Mary's and freshman Nick Ruden 13.

(N-H-L hockey)

THURSDAY RESULTS - February 26

(high school basketball)

SIOUX CITY -- The Le Mars boys basketball team not only avenged one of their four regular season losses Thursday night in the District finals but also made a BOLD statement -- that they were a team with the State tournament on their radar and they were taking no prisoners while on their march to Des Moines. The sixth-rated Bulldogs overpowered Sergeant Bluff-Luton 61-35 at the North High gym to advance to Monday's 3A Sub-State game in Orange City. The win avenged a 67-62 loss December 13th in Le Mars to Sergeant Bluff-Luton. The Warriors jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the opening two minutes of the game Thursday while Le Mars was sizing up the S-B-L game plan. The Dogs went to work at that point, reeling off ten straight points to take a 12-5 lead and they would never look in the rear view mirror again. Leading 27-15 at halftime, Le Mars went on a 13-0 run in the third quarter to open up a 26-point lead and the rout was on. The Bulldogs hit 60% from the floor, missing only nine shots over the final three quarters of the game. The Warriors never seemed to have an answer for the inside presence of 6'7" Tyler Borchers and 6'5" Pete Meis as the two seniors scored 18 points each. For Meis it was a career high. Trent Hilbrands added 12 for the Bulldogs. The defensive end of the floor is where the Bulldogs really shined Thursday night, holding S-B-L to a season-low 35 points on just 30% shooting while closing down the penetration of the Warrior guard court that keyed their December upset. Jacob Schultz had 8 points to lead the Warriors scoring while Chris Kroll and Andrew Christensen added 7 each. Le Mars takes a 19-and-4 record into a Sub-State match-up with number-nine Spirit Lake Monday night at the M-O-C/Floyd Valley gym. The two Lakes rivals split their two regular season meetings, with Spirit Lake winning by nine at home while Le Mars won by 17 in the rematch at the Bulldogs gym to clinch the conference title February 10th.